Axiant 2.02 lets programmers move PowerHouse applications to new environments and interfaces, including the ability to shift some of an application's processing into the client side of the client-server configuration. Cognos is positioning Axiant as a development and migration engine to upgrade HP 3000 PowerHouse applications which were first written without client-server functionality.
A visual development environment that runs on Windows and NT PCs, Axiant has been rebuilt with the renovation of older PowerHouse applications in mind. Cognos vice president of 4GLs Patrick O'Leary said that Axiant wouldn't be the right choice for customers who want to continue to develop only traditional character-based interfaces for 3000 PowerHouse applications. Adding advanced GUI functionality is a better match for the capabilities of tool, now in its second major release.
The difference in those releases lies in PowerHouse, the 4GL with nearly 20 years' service in HP 3000 shops. PowerHouse is getting a revision to put it in step with Axiant. The latest PowerHouse doesn't require the PC tool, but it now integrates with Axiant. Cognos is offering PowerHouse 8.09 this month as a pull release, one that customers must request instead of having automatically shipped to them.
8.09 adds PowerHouse's first direct support for Oracle databases on HP 3000s. Oracle is still proving itself on MPE/iX, however, so the impact of direct Oracle support may be slight for HP 3000 PowerHouse sites. An important advance is 8.09's ability to interoperate with Axiant.
Axiant creates thin clients for PowerHouse applications and has tools to support "re-databasing" applications. It can also give HP 3000s a way to play in multiple environment enterprises. For example, PowerHouse systems based on HP 3000s could exchange data with related applications based on Windows NT systems or Windows 95 where mobile access is needed. Cognos officials say that creating thin clients is far and away the most popular change that customers are making to PowerHouse applications.
The PowerHouse ability to access PC resources can rely on ODBCLink, the data access utility within M.B. Foster Associates' DataExpress. Cognos doesn't resell DataExpress. But when a customer deploys ODBCLink, both TurboIMAGE and Allbase/SQL databases can be accessed by clients running code created with the Cognos tools. Cognos is certifying the M.B. Foster tool for use with PowerHouse, the only such MPE/iX tool it's officially supporting for ODBC access.
Patrick O'Leary of Cognos said the certification keeps his company's support more effective, since it limits the number of outside middleware solutions Cognos needs to track. O'Leary said Cognos learned from experiences in the Digital VMS middleware market to keep its support scope focused on fewer third-party solutions.
In a related development, Cognos announced that its support products were ranked best in support loyalty in a Prognostics survey. Cognos support was measured against that from 35 companies including HP, Informix, IBM and Progress, among others.